Archives for August 2014

The Greenville County Coroner’s Office has now identified two men whose bodies were found outside a vacant Greenville County textile equipment plant early Friday morning.

The two were identified as 53-year-old Richard Ellison and 65-year-old Bobby Wood. Coroner Parks Evans said both men were security guards at the shuttered JD Hollingsworth on Wheels plant south of Greenville. Evans said both had multiple stab and gunshot wounds. Greenville County Sheriff’s deputies said they do not have any suspects at this time.

Deputies said a newspaper carrier spotted the bodies around 3:36 a.m. Friday and called 911.

The 60-acre Hollingsworth property is located off Highway 276 between Mauldin and the Greenville city limits, near Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR). The facility closed in 2009, but the company maintains 24-hour security at the site. Both bodies were found near a guard shack at the gate, according to Fox Carolina.

Master Deputy Jonathan Smith said it appeared the murders occurred during a shift change, as typically only one guard mans the gate at a time. Smith said K-9 units and deputies searched the property for any evidence connected to the deaths.

“We understand the concerns from citizens,” he said, asking anyone who had seen anything suspicious in the area to call Crimestoppers at (843) 23-CRIME. “We’d just remind everybody to be mindful.”

In a statement released Friday, Hollingsworth Funds said both men were longtime employees. Woods had been an employee at the site since 1967, while Ellison had worked there since 1998.

A Jasper County hunting preserve has agreed to pay a quarter-million dollars after three of its employees were sentenced for illegally trapping and killing more than 30 federally-protected raptors.

Federal prosecutors announced Friday that the MacKay Point Plantation in Yemassee would pay $250,000 in restitution to several animal charities in the area. The announcement came as 8,000-acre preserve’s general manager 59-year-old William Martin and two other employees pleaded guilty to killing the birds of prey in order to reduce predators for the site’s annual quail hunts.

“Today’s sentence sends a strong message to unscrupulous hunters and landowners who think they are above the law,” U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles said in a statement, adding that killing birds of prey to improve quail hunts has become a “widespread” problem in the Southeast.

Prosecutors say Martin, 54-year-Keith Gebhardt, and 63-year-old Mark Argetsinger were each sentenced to six months probation, community service, and fine. All three will also be banned from trapping animals for year. Argetsinger is a Beaufort native, while Martin and Gebhardt live in Yemassee.

Bond has been denied for a man accused of deliberately crashing his car into an assisted living facility in Clinton on Wednesday, sending eight people to the hospital and forcing the evacuation of all 40 residents.

A judge on Thursday denied bond for 84-year-old Alton Payton on an attempted murder charge, according to the Clinton Chronicle. The judge set a $10,000 bond on a charge of malicious injury to property. Clinton Public Safety Director Robin Morse had told the court he believed Payton was a danger to himself and the community.

Two family members are asking the judge to consider a psychological evaluation, saying that Payton is suffering from early signs of dementia.

Investigators said the 84-year-old rammed his car through the doors at Bailey Manor Presbyterian retirement home Wednesday and ended up in the lobby. While no one was injured in the crash itself, Morse said a portable gas can in the car caught fire and several people suffered smoke inhalation. All 40 residents had to be evacuated. Authorities estimated the crash did $500,000 worth of damage to the home.

According to the Chronicle, Bailey Manor Administrator Rita Stanley said it will take several weeks to repair the building. She said most of the residents are staying with family, while others are at Presbyterian Community South Carolina or National HealthCare Clinton.

Former State Rep. Thad Viers speaks shortly before his resignation in March 2012 (Courtesy: SCETV)

A former state legislator has pleaded not guilty to charges of money laundering and engaging in transactions using illegal proceeds.

Former State Rep. Thad Viers entered the plea during his arraignment in federal court Thursday. Prosecutors say the Myrtle Beach Republican helped a paving contractor who had defaulted on a $6 million road project.

An indictment unsealed earlier this month asserts that Viers helped the man hide his ownership in a marina and an investment firm when a bonding company sought to collect the debt. That contractor Marlon Weaver pleaded guilty to money laundering in 2013.

Viers was indicted on 12 counts of engaging in transactions using illegal proceeds, one count of money laundering, and another count of lying to an IRS agent. Prosecutors say Weaver backdated documents to make it appear he had transferred his interest in the marina and side business.

The indictment states Viers helped Weaver hide his financial assets by withdrawing $524,000 from his law firm’s trust account between February and October 2011. The indictment states Viers knew the money came from Weaver’s unlawful activities. Viers was also accused of working with a third man to help hide Weaver’s assets from September 2009 to October 2011.

According to the Associated Press, Viers’ attorney Pete Strom maintained that his client did not realize he was breaking the law. Strom told reporters outside the Florence courtroom Thursday that South Carolina’s two law schools do not properly teach law students about complex financial matters they could encounter.

Viers served in the state House of Representatives from 2003 until 2012. He resigned to face harassment charges and eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment in January. He was sentenced to 60 days in prison (to be served on weekends) and a year of probation. Most of these new charges allegedly occurred while Viers was still in the House, although prosecutors say the charge of lying to an IRS agent stems from a March conversation.

Coyote sightings have become more much frequent in South Carolina in the past three decades, but state wildlife officials say the number appears to be leveling off.

The State newspaper reported Wednesday that the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources counted more than 30,000 coyotes killed by hunters last year. The agency notes that number has stayed between 28,000 and 32,000 each of the past five years after growing exponentially since the 1990s.

DNR staffers say coyotes have been in South Carolina since the 1970s, when they were brought in to help train hunting dogs. With no predators, they have since spread to every county in the state. The agency blaming them for 80 percent of deer fawn deaths. But the agency says the animals are likely here to stay.

The State Ethics Commission ruled Wednesday that Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin did not have to report a Florida trip he took with his former business partner who was later convicted on corruption charges.

During their meeting Wednesday, ethics commissioners unanimously agreed with arguments from Benjamin’s attorney that the 2010 trip was not part of the mayor’s job — but was instead related to his friendship and business dealings with disgraced ex-SC State University trustee Jonathan Pinson. A jury found Pinson guilty last month on 29 counts, including racketeering and theft of government funds.

During Pinson’s trial, federal prosecutors revealed a trip to Orlando that Pinson had taken with Mayor Benjamin in December 2010. That trip was purportedly to meet with Florida developer Richard Zahn, who was in negotiations with Pinson at the time to sell 120 acres of land to S.C. State (Zahn pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud after prosecutors said he agreed to pay kickbacks to Pinson and other S.C. State employees as part of the deal).

Ethics Commission staff began questioning the trip after it was revealed Zahn paid for the flight, a limo, dinner, and a trip to a strip club. State law requires an elected official to disclose any gifts they receive if the gift was believed to be given because of the official’s position or in hopes of seeking a contractual, business, or financial relationship with the city. Benjamin did not list the items on his Statement of Economic Interest.

SC House Speaker Bobby Harrell announced Wednesday he has created a special ad hoc committee that will be tasked with finding ways to end South Carolina’s status as the nation’s highest rate for women murdered by men.

The Special Criminal Domestic Violence Ad Hoc Committee had its first organizational meeting Wednesday afternoon.

Harrell named the ad hoc domestic violence committee after the Charleston Post & Courier ran a series of articles detailing serious legal and cultural problems that cause the rate of women killed by men in South Carolina to be nearly double the national rate.

The articles noted that 14 pieces of legislation have been proposed in the Statehouse concerning domestic violence in the last two years. But only one of those measures passed– dealing with custody of pets that may be caught up in the situation.

Committee chair State Rep. Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort, said the panel will hear from experts, stakeholders, and the public to see if criminal laws could be toughened or the law enforcement and legal system improved to help reduce the violence. Erickson said she hoped the committee would be able to recommend comprehensive reform, not piecemeal changes.[Read more…]

A state-of-the art collegiate learning center in form and function, the new Darla Moore School of Business was presented to reporters Wednesday as the latest architectural jewel on the sprawling University of South Carolina campus in Columbia.

The 252,000 square-foot six-level building, next to the Carolina Coliseum, maximizes natural light throughout and each level shades the one below it. The classrooms features the latest in learning and communication technologies.

This is the first year for the business school’s new location on the western edge of campus. Previously, the school had been located in the Close-Hipp building along Pendleton and Barnwell streets. The U.S. Department of Justice plans to begin leasing that space now that students have moved out.

Peter Brews, who became dean of the business school in mid-January, says he arrived at USC at a great time. The South Africa native said the best way to describe the new building may have been coined by the students with their unique use of the English language.

The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a marketing employee was entitled to workers compensation after injuring himself during a Greenville company’s kickball game.

In a 3-2 ruling, the justices determined Stephen Whigham’s injury was covered under workers comp laws because he had organized the game as part of his job. Whigham worked for the Greenville office of Jackson Dawson Communications, a marketing/public relations firm. According to court testimony, he came up with the idea of a kickball game as a team-building exercise for employees. During the game, Whigham shattered two bones in his leg while trying to avoid being tagged out.

He underwent two surgeries and told the court he will ultimately need a knee replacement. He had appealed after the Workers Compensation Commission ruled in 2012 that the injury did not arise out of or in the course of Whigham’s employment because his participation was not required.

However the majority sided with Whigham, saying he was “impliedly required” to attend an event he had organized for his coworkers.

“Whigham’s participation was expected rather than voluntary,” Justice Kay Hearn wrote for the majority. “This fact sets Whigham’s participation apart from that of all the other employees. It is undisputed that Whigham felt compelled to go and his boss would have considered it a dereliction of duty to miss it.”

The dissenting judges argued that, while Whigham’s attendance may have been expected at the kickball game, that did not require him to participate.

“Attending the event and participating in the kickball game are entirely different things,” Justice John Kittredge wrote.

The Workers Compensation Commission

will now hold another hearing at a later date to determine how much Whigham should be paid for his injury.